The Way

First Advent Wednesday

December 5, 2007

Isaiah 7:10-14

"The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel."

Remember the joke in those old Wendy’s commercials: "Parts is parts"? Wendy’s was telling us that how something is made makes all the difference in how it tastes.

How something is made makes all the difference in how it tastes, and how it performs, and how long it lasts, and whether or not it achieves what it is designed to achieve.

Despite how I joked about it, last spring, if one has blockages in his coronary arteries, you don’t want them to insert stents made out of mozzarella cheese. You don’t want those sorts of parts inside of your parts.

This conversation—how something is made makes all the difference—is a vital one when talking about the Savior of the world. Various folks have longed to be a savior. Some have thrust themselves into the role. Others have been elevated to the post by their followers.

History records all sorts, through all sorts of means and methods, who have done the work of the conquering hero. Some got more mileage from the role of savior than others, but all, ultimately, had the same result:

They all died. And, eventually, whatever it was that they conquered, and whomever they saved, were conquered and finally, themselves, died.

The problem? These people were only masquerading as saviors. They could only be temporary saviors because they were only temporary, themselves, and the work they accomplished was only temporary. They were physical. Their work was physical. They, and their work, went to the grave and life went on.

This brings us to the person and work of Jesus, the Christ of God. This brings us to our first topic for these Advent Wednesdays—The Way in which Jesus was made.

Of what was Jesus made that made Him different, so that His work would work—so that His saving would last—so that He would transcend the physical and conquer the physical and the spiritual?

Our text, prophesied by Isaiah, seven hundred years before being accomplished in Mary and Jesus, reminds us: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." You know this, as well as you know that December 24 is not a good day to begin your Christmas shopping.

You know that Jesus, the Savior, was born of a virgin. You know that Joseph wasn’t His real father, but that God is Jesus’ real Father. But, do you know why it is of the utmost importance that this is the way the Son of God took on human flesh?

Remember, how something is made determines everything about what it will accomplish—what it can accomplish.

Because of advances in science, we are getting real familiar with DNA. We understand how DNA works, simply by looking at our children. One man and one woman produce kids which are a combination of themselves—sometimes, the similarities are almost clone-like.

Well, in the same way that one man and one woman give a child everything that he has, physically—from his bone structure, to his eye color, even to a predisposition to some diseases—in the same way that they pass on who they are, physically, they pass on who they are, spiritually.

Though Adam was formed from the ground in God’s image, God’s Word tells us that Adam and Eve brought forth their first child in Adam’s image. The first parents could not help but pass on to their kids the Original Sin that they committed. And, because of who we are—people conceived and born with Adam’s sinful nature—that is what we spiritually pass on to our children.

Jesus, however, is different.

Jesus has a fully human mother—Mary had a dad and mom, and so she possessed a sinful nature—but, we recall that a human being does not begin in mother. It is the man, who plants his seed in the woman, fertilizing her egg, and conceiving a life.

Where is the man in the process of the conception of Jesus? He is nowhere to be found. Instead, the Holy Spirit, as God the Father’s instrument, overshadows Mary, conceiving in her the Son of the Most High.

Since Adam is the source of Original Sin, and there is no Adam in Jesus’ nature, Jesus is born without Adam’s sinful nature. Where all children of Adam are conceived in Adam’s image—that’s you, and me, and every other person on earth—Jesus is conceived in God the Father’s image.

How something is made determines how effective it can be and what it will accomplish.

Before we connect the dots on this topic, let’s address all of those folks, who don’t buy into Jesus’ miraculous birth of a virgin. Down through the years, many so-called Christians have dismissed this story as, well, just that, a story—that Jesus was no more born of a virgin than anyone else. They point to the fables of other great men, where stories were created to make them look unique, and say that Jesus’ virgin birth is but another fable.

So, why do we take Jesus’ virgin birth so seriously? I really want to simply say, "Because God’s Word says so," and leave it at that. If the Bible is God’s Word, and the Bible is trustworthy in everything it teaches, and the birth of Jesus is explained in real, historical terms, not as a parable or fable, but an actual event, then that’s good enough for me.

But, today, we are not going to let this answer be enough, because we have in our minds that how something is made makes all the difference in how it performs and what it accomplishes. And, we are remembering loads of heroes who, in the end, died, and whose kingdoms were, eventually, reconquered by the next guy that came along.

Because Jesus was conceived in the womb of a virgin, by God, Himself, Jesus is made in a way that He can accomplish the conquering which is needed by the entire world—and, do so in a way that His Father is pleased to make Jesus’ kingdom extend over the entire world, and over the entire period of history, and so that it will be a kingdom which never ends—never gets conquered by someone else, who might come along.

Jesus was born without sin, giving Him the ability to resist the temptations of the devil and the world. Try as they might, Jesus possessed the might to say no, to be able step clear of every trap and to pass every test.

Because He succeeded—because He was virgin-born of the Most High God—when Jesus freely went to the cross, His sacrifice possessed the stuff of a conqueror—one who could, and would conquer everything physical and spiritual—and, conquer in a manner which could never be defeated by another.

And, where every other hero has died, and has stayed dead, well, you know the rest of the story. Because Jesus was virgin-born of the Most High God, and free from the sin which holds sway over all of mankind, who are conceived in Adam’s image, death’s grasp on Jesus had to slip. The grave only held Him long enough for Him to fulfill His Sabbath rest from His work of saving you. On the third day, He rose from the grave—He rose in triumph—the Ultimate Conquering Hero.

But, that’s not all, and you know it. The Most High God didn’t do this to simply impress you, but to save you. As He conceived His Son in a virgin, He conceived that you would be washed in a water of salvation, and be preached a word of salvation, and be fed on the body and blood of salvation.

And, so you are. That’s why you are here. You know the Conquering Hero, Jesus, the virgin-born Son of the Most High God. You live in the light of His saving grace.

You are a citizen of Jesus Christ’s eternal, undefeatable kingdom, in which you have conquered in you every sin and the curse of death, under the reign of your Savior, Jesus. Amen.